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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Benny B on March 03, 2009, 08:25:08 AM
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Steele to Rush: I'm sorry
By: Mike Allen
March 2, 2009
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”
“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”
The dust-up comes at a time when top Democrats are trying to make Limbaugh the face of the Republican Party, in part by using ads funded by labor. Americans United for Change sent a fund-raising e-mail Monday that begins: “The Republican Party has turned into the Rush Limbaugh Party.”
Steele told CNN host D.L. Hughley in an interview aired Saturday night: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh — his whole thing is entertainment. He has this incendiary — yes, it's ugly.”
Steele, who won a hard-fought chairman's race on Jan. 30, told Politico he telephoned Limbaugh after his show on Monday afternoon and hoped that they would connect soon.
“I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not."
“I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh,” Steele added. “No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”
On Monday’s show, Limbaugh reacted both to the comment and to the assertion on CBS’s “Face the Nation” by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the radio host is “the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.”
Limbaugh said: “I'm not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don't want to be. I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in the sad-sack state that it's in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it's in, I would quit. I might get out the hari-kari knife because I would have presided over a failure that is embarrassing to the Republicans and conservatives who have supported it and invested in it all these years.”
On the RushLimbaugh.com home page, the transcript is labeled: “A Few Words for Michael Steele.”
On Monday night, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine called on Republicans to "stop following divisive figures" like Limbaugh.
"I was briefly encouraged by the courageous comments made my counterpart in the Republican Party over the weekend challenging Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party and referring to his show as ‘incendiary’ and ‘ugly,’" Kaine said in a statement. "However, Chairman Steele’s reversal this evening and his apology to Limbaugh proves the unfortunate point that Limbaugh is the leading force behind the Republican Party, its politics and its obstruction of President Obama’s agenda in Washington."
In the interview with Politico, Steele called Limbaugh “a very valuable conservative voice for our party.”
“He brings a very important message to the American people to wake up and pay attention to what the administration is doing," Steele said. "Number two, there are those out there who want to look at what he’s saying as incendiary and divisive and ugly. That’s what I was trying to say. It didn’t come out that way. … He does what he does best, which is provoke: He provokes thought, he provokes the left. And they’re clearly the ones who are most excited about him.”
Asked if he planned to apologize, Steele said: “I wasn’t trying to offend anybody. So, yeah, if he’s offended, I’d say: Look, I’m not in the business of hurting people’s feelings here. … My job is to try to bring us all together.”
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This is just getting embarrassing for the Repugs.
They go out and give their honest opinion and then the next day pretend they didn't know what they were saying and come groveling back to ingratiate themselves to a radio clown.
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This is just getting embarrassing for the Repugs.
They go out and give their honest opinion and then the next day pretend they didn't know what they were saying and come groveling back to ingratiate themselves to a radio clown.
The walking wounded... LOL
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There was a senator on 1600 at 6pm last night on msnbc.
He was read a quote from Rush saying "ALL Republicans want Obama to fail".
This SENATOR didn't have the guts to say that there was a possibility theat even ONE Repub in the nation didn't feel that way. He was that scared of Rush. He admitted he didn't feel that way - and when the host asked him if that does not then PROVE Rush's statement incorrect, the senator just froze and said nothing.
He was that scared of Rush. Pat Buchanan, of course, had the guts to say "Sure, Rush was wrong about that".
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It sure feels weird when the leader of one of the two main parties is apologizing to a radio host for making bold remarks.
Steele seems like an beat up dog at the moment.
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This is just getting embarrassing for the Repugs.
They go out and give their honest opinion and then the next day pretend they didn't know what they were saying and come groveling back to ingratiate themselves to a radio clown.
yeah real embarrasing, a radio host and a fundrasier quiblling while nobody in the current admin can pay their taxes, fix a damm thing or show monetary constraint. Ur right, horrible. ::)
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yeah real embarrasing, a radio host and a fundrasier quiblling while nobody in the current admin can pay their taxes, fix a damm thing or show monetary constraint. Ur right, horrible. ::)
This is false and also irrelevent
It's BIZZARO that any politician (a representative of the people of his/her state or district) would supplicate themselves to a radio clown.
Can you imagine the uproar on the right if Dems did this with Olberman. Of course Olberman would never act like the childish, bloated drug addict that is Rush so it's pretty hard to imagine
What's clear is the the Republicans put "party before country" and maybe even "Rush before party"
Maybe they should just stop being coy and rename the party the Rush Party
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yeah real embarrasing, a radio host and a fundrasier quiblling
There are only 5 or 6 leaders in the repub party.
Palin = joke, and you admit it hh6.
Jindal = religious zealot who lies about katrina events
Rush?
Steele?
Ron paul?
Huck?
Mitt?
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For the 1000th time 240, Rush clearly stated that he wants Obama to fail if Obama is pushing Socialist programs on this country. There is no debate, thats what he said. The media shortened the message to attack Rush.
Rush is not the leader of the Republican party. Rush is an entertainer with conservative ideas. He's actually a smart guy with many good ideas but turns many people off because he provokes, just as Steele said. Nonetheless, I see where the back and forth between Steele and Rush makes the party look bad again.
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For the 1000th time 240, Rush clearly stated that he wants Obama to fail if Obama is pushing Socialist programs on this country. There is no debate, thats what he said. The media shortened the message to attack Rush.
Rush is not the leader of the Republican party. Rush is an entertainer with conservative ideas. He's actually a smart guy with many good ideas but turns many people off because he provokes, just as Steele said. Nonetheless, I see where the back and forth between Steele and Rush makes the party look bad again.
great - then he shouldn't want Obama to fail because he's not pushing socialist programs on this country
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fvck em both.
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Straw, you are wrong. He is absolutely pushing a socialist type agenda. We can argue on details but there are many subtypes of socialism. At their core is the economic theory that there is government/public ownership and influence advocating government/public ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Gov also determines fair compensation to ensure equal opportunity and fairness to all (which sounds ok but means the gov gets too far into the private sector). Obama is actually pushing mixed market socialism which is combined government and private industry administration of means of production & distribution of goods.
Not only that, but his deficit spending is unprecidented and raising our national debt for years to come. He tells everyone to live within their means and then leads the largest irresponsible spending this country has ever seen.
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fvck em both.
Agreed, its funny how these people keep paying a convicted drug addict who scored his fix in a Dennys parking lot millions of dollars to run his yap. Repubs have absolutely nothing better, goes to show you.
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There was a senator on 1600 at 6pm last night on msnbc.
He was read a quote from Rush saying "ALL Republicans want Obama to fail".
This SENATOR didn't have the guts to say that there was a possibility theat even ONE Repub in the nation didn't feel that way. He was that scared of Rush. He admitted he didn't feel that way - and when the host asked him if that does not then PROVE Rush's statement incorrect, the senator just froze and said nothing.
He was that scared of Rush. Pat Buchanan, of course, had the guts to say "Sure, Rush was wrong about that".
I want Obama to fail because if he succeeds it means we will be a communist nation.
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great - then he shouldn't want Obama to fail because he's not pushing socialist programs on this country
Jim Cramer agrees with you. He voted for Obama and even says now that Obama is pushing "communistic" ideas.
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Society needs a balance of capitalism, socialism and communism to thrive. Everyone's failed at instituting one type, America is just now finding that out.
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I want Obama to fail because if he succeeds it means we will be a communist nation.
show me the math
at least lay out some plausible chain for your claimed outcome
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Look, I think the debate has gone all absurd.
Of course I want Obama to succeed in leading USA into prosperous times.
But I also believe that includes a healthy, vital opposition to him.
Honest conservative politics, as well as radical left, will help the president do a better job.
As far as Rush and his thugs goes, I see a lot of rhetorics that's very ugly.
Instead of attacking flaws in the policies Rush is stuck on demonizing Obama, resorting to name calling ('Marxist').
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Watch and learn kids.
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LMAO!! The Dem plan has worked beyond expectations.
Labeling Rush the leader of the GOP has put a spotlight on what a joke the entire party is. Then with Steele and the other Repunks bowing down to Rush at his command has only reinforced the image. They played right into this plan so easily it is embarassing.
The GOP is DESPERATE to find a new voice and face and they are scrambling like mad to do so. The association with Rush is killing them.
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LMAO!! The Dem plan has worked beyond expectations.
Labeling Rush the leader of the GOP has put a spotlight on what a joke the entire party is. Then with Steele and the other Repunks bowing down to Rush at his command has only reinforced the image. They played right into this plan so easily it is embarassing.
The GOP is DESPERATE to find a new voice and face and they are scrambling like mad to do so. The association with Rush is killing them.
Funny coming from a White house who is now attacking Jim Cramer over his comments which were far more detailed about the insanity and marxist goals that Obama is pursuing.
Oh yeah, Cramer voted for Obama.
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Cramer is has been consistently wrong in his own field of expertise.
You'd be better off fading every prediction that he makes than putting any credence in what he says
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Cramer is has been consistently wrong in his own field of expertise.
You'd be better off fading every prediction that he makes than putting any credence in what he says
Ha ha. Even democrats who voted for Obama like Cramer are starting to cringe over the policies he is pursuing.
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Ha ha. Even democrats who voted for Obama like Cramer are starting to cringe over the policies he is pursuing.
Oh my. You gave one example.
Unlike the vast numbers who disowned Bush the last part of his term and all but abandoned McLame during the campaign.
The hypocrisy of a double standard seems to slay repubs every time.
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Oh my. You gave one example.
Unlike the vast numbers who disowned Bush the last part of his term and all but abandoned McLame during the campaign.
The hypocrisy of a double standard seems to slay repubs every time.
Evan Bayh and Russ Feingold came out today and said that Obama is spending too much.
Are they radical right wingers like me?
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LMAO!! The Dem plan has worked beyond expectations.
Labeling Rush the leader of the GOP has put a spotlight on what a joke the entire party is. Then with Steele and the other Repunks bowing down to Rush at his command has only reinforced the image. They played right into this plan so easily it is embarassing.
The GOP is DESPERATE to find a new voice and face and they are scrambling like mad to do so. The association with Rush is killing them.
This "plan" has shown that liberals get their little feelings hurt, when you turn off the PC switch and tell it like it is. The fact that the President of the United States and his administration are affixed, not on terrorists who plan to destroy our country (foreign or domestic) but a radio show host (albeit a popular one) tells of how insecure these folks actually are.
We know they're trying to fix Limbaugh as the leader of the GOP. But, the point you continue to miss is that, if these folks don't get their acts together and FIX THE ECONOMY (which they were put in office to do, instead of blaming George Bush for every ill under the sun and obsessing over conservative radio hosts), then they will get booted out office as quickly as they were placed there.
The voters are NOT going to blame the GOP, as jobs go bye-bye, and businesses go under, DESPITE money getting spent buck wild. There'll be no more excuses for the Dems (even though they'll remind everyone, for the nth time, that they inherited a deficit).
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I think it was a mistake for Steele to mention Rush at all in the first place.